Tribune columnists John Kass (politics) and Blair Kamin (architecture) both had good things to say today about Da Mare’s outrageous, midnight raid on Meigs Field.

Kass, in “Daley’s abuse of power leaves marks on city“:

This is not a complicated story of insider deals, of contracts, connections, of documented paper trails.

Rather, it is simple, with photographs, something TV is interested in watching: the destruction of a valuable resource simply because it was in Daley’s way, and because he knew no one could stop him.

Little Big Man finally revealed himself as the absolute boss ruling Chicago and Cook County with wrought-iron fists.

Kamin, in “Land grabs don’t get any more naked than this“:

Noble ends don’t justify ignoble means.

As much as I believe that Meigs should become a park, the way Daley has gone about it stinks as badly as the nose-wrinkling stench that once wafted out of the Union Stockyards.

If you ever doubted that all the important urban planning decisions in Chicago are made by a democratically elected monarch whose throne is on the fifth floor of City Hall, then what happened Sunday night — when backhoes appeared at 11 p.m. and jabbed giant Xs in Meigs’ runway — should erase your doubts forever.